The Rhythms of life| • Triadic Thinking • The Origin of Rhythm • The Dance of Shiva • A Universe of Change • Collective Conscious • The Now • Nations • The United States • Kala • Rhythm • The Triad of Rhythms |
THE RHYTHMS OF LIFE
The line it is drawn the curse it is cast
The slow one now will later be fast
As the present now will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.
Triadic Thinking
– runs throughout the human experience. We live in a world with an Earth, Moon and Sun, it is Solid, Liquid and Gas, and it contains Animal, Mineral and Vegetable forms. Electricity contains Positive, Negative and Neutral elements, the atom consists of Protons, Electrons and Neutrons and even subatomic pions are Positive, Negative and Neutral. Sacred beliefs are based on a Triad of deities, or trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel developed a dialectical scheme of social order with Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis. Sigmund Freud identified the Id, Ego, and Superego, and, the Unconscious, Conscious and Superconscious parts of the mind. We also have the global concept of the bioshpere, noosphere and the theosphere.(1) Triadic elements are pervasive and have been since the “beginning.”
The New Testament tells that in the beginning was the word.(2) In many ancient belief systems the word is Aum. In Indian philosophy Aum is the vibratory manifestation of the omnipotent force. Aum manifests a triad of divine elements in its three aspects. Time, Kala, is the idea of change in the Ever-unchangeable; Space, Desa, is the idea of division in the Ever-indivisible; and Matter, Anu, is the vibratory structure of the atom and all creation.(4) We conceive time as Past, Present and Future; Euclid defined space with Height, Width, and Depth, and Leonard Euler described patterns of matter as having Lines, Points and Areas. All triads are interconnected.(5) The time-space continuum through which matter will change creates Rhythm.
The Origin of Rhythm
The Dance of Shiva
Teachings of the ancient mystics are being realized before our eyes. Twelfth and thirteenth century Sufis like Jalal al-Din Rumi said that the microcosm is the macrocosm, as many others have seen. Nuclear physicist Fritzoff Capra wrote his “Tao of Physics” to show how the latest science and the earliest religions are telling the same story. This exciting energy is in our auric field right now. It is the kind of energy that has spawned simultaneous discovery in historic breakthroughs around the world. A source of inspiration is being felt more and more.
Romantics say that mathematics and music are throughout the universe. The math is in the Rhythms, Rhythms are the music, and music moves the universe. A chart of Cycles is the sheet music to the Dance of Shiva. The dance is within us. We are learning how living systems have internal Rhythms that move like clockwork from the time of birth. The dance is around us. We build nations and live in a world that changes in Cycles. All life is Cyclical.
- We Live in a World of Rhythm.
A Universe of Change
– is all around us. When something is born into this universe, it is a microcosm of Genesis. This happens when a nation is born, and it is in the cry of a new born child. They come into existence from the great void,(6) Bhindu, where darkness is pregnant with light.(7) Then there is life.(8) A life is given a body, a heart and a mind(9) from the Divine Trinity. It dances in the image of its creator,(10) and Rhythms tell the story. This is how the story was told thousands of years ago. We have viewed this many ways and used many metaphors over the ages, only to rediscover the same forces.
Our current change of realization brings realization of change with a look at the Physical evidence. This evidence is turning science away from recent ideas and toward ancient metaphors with a retelling of the same story. When Aristarchus of Samos and Nicholas Copernicus saw beyond the geocentric view of the universe, we found that the sun, moon and stars do not revolve around us. In this way we rediscovered the revolving tendency of creation and found ourselves aboard an orb that is revolving around a sun that circles the center of a galaxy in motion. When Einstein’s theory of relativity and quantum physics developed in this century we went beyond traditional beliefs. Now we are beyond mechanical models of the universe put forth by Sir Isaac Newton. We are beyond notions of fixed points in absolute space and the single system philosophy of Rene Descartes. Our moving viewpoint as observers plays a part in the observations(11) and evidence suggests that nothing is fixed in time and space, including us.(12) Relativity comes from the motion, and the motion comes in Rhythm. We live within the Rhythms and the Rhythms live within us.
As science is working on a Unified Field Theory that supposes an interconnected universe, the search points to Oneness. Clues come in self-repeating patterns that mirror all existence in categories, great and small. We live in a reflective universe and each fractal part within it is a part of all of it. In self realization, we find that the Oneness of it all lies beyond the Western “principle of individuation” that has been debated for centuries by such leading figures as Duns Scotus of the Franciscan order to Arthur Schopenhauer. We must, however, grow beyond illusion, Maya, and the consequences of our action, Karma, along the way to realization. Science is now solving the mysteries of DNA. Beyond that mystery lies another mystery, and beyond that lies yet another. We will not fully understand the mystery, until we become the mystery.(13) (14)
- All Rhythms Are Interconnected.
A Collective Conscious
– comes to each of us as the sum of all thoughts, feelings and actions experienced by everyone over time. It is mass energy born into the hearts of us all. We have instincts and recognize patterns from the past because of it. As Joseph Campbell observed that we all share a common mythology, and by virtue of the fact that “we all smile in the same language,”(15) we are interconnected with a common thread by because of it. A nation of people may have a Group Inheritance all their own that individuates as part of the whole.
As people of a nation, we also interconnect through a field individuated within the group inheritance of us all. Our nation’s history is born into the unconscious minds of each of us, and is felt by newcomers. We carry the experience and karmic inheritance of our nation’s past in much the same way we carry lines from genetic ancestors. When we carry the love of freedom and zeal for life that pervades in America, we may be remembering founding forbearers who devoted their lives to create this nation, and their successors who fought to preserve it. As we restore land to its natural beauty and unite our races, we may be acting upon a debt by inheritance to do so. Generations to follow will also inherit the consequences of our actions. The Group Inheritance continues with the nation.
- The Collective Conscious of Everyone is in Anyone.
The Now
– of a nation is current self awareness within the nation. It comprises all thoughts, feelings and actions experienced by everyone in the present, not the past. In this regard, the Now is a system that provides a moving window through time. In describing a system, R. Buckminster Fuller wrote, “System subdivides universe into all the universe outside the system (macrocosm) and all the rest of the universe which is inside the system (microcosm) with the exception of the minor fraction of universe which constitutes the system itself.” The system itself is a field of Rhythmic Change that manifests through a unified field of the nation and affects us all.
The death of Princess Diana showed an aspect of the Now. So many of us remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we heard of it. A startle effect sent shock waves through the our nation as it did in England with a ripple effect that froze everyone for an instant. All Americans remember where they were and what they were doing on September 11, 2001 when the World Trade Towers in New York and the Pentagon Building in Washington were attacked. Everyone from a generation before remembered where they were on December 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was attacked.
The Now interconnects us. It is a synergy of collective consciousness(16) from the contemporary mass awareness within the state of the nation. That is how we live together, individuated as a nation, and are collectively subject to Rhythm.
- The Now is the State of Change in a System.
A Now of global connectedness comprises all people around the world. The global Now moves to slower Rhythms, for the greater the power, the greater the shift and the greater the Rhythm. The Now of a nation individuates as a sub-field within it. Individuals have sub-fields within that. Rhythms within Rhythms blend in harmony(17) and appear in a nation.
Nations
– like a people, have life and internal Rhythms. A nation is born. It comes into being from a cataclysmic haze. Revolution, turnovers, and change will bring forth a new nation in a ripple of time. A nation grows as a single entity through generations of people who live and die within it like cells in a great organism.(18) It has stages of development, builds character, and amasses knowledge. A complex adaptive, nonlinear system comes into being. This is more than a group of people with a common defense, culture, and government occupying a territory, for it will share a common future as change concurs within it like heartbeats through time.
Oswald Spengler believed in a life Cycle of birth, youth, maturity, senescence and death through which civilizations will pass, (as well as predictable spiritual forms, duration, and Rhythm), which he stated in Der Untergang.
Giovanni Battista was an Italian historian and philosopher who showed that can see our nation as a form of life. He accounted for the birth, development, and decline of nations that have cyclical periods of distinct character.
William L. Shirer believed that nations have what he called the character of a people, a view he developed as a career journalist and multiple-best-selling author on history.
Professor John Lucas of Philadelphia said to docu-journalist Bill Moyers, “Nations have purposes and self-ascribed destinies as have individuals.”
The parallels between a nation and a person have been drawn. As moves a life, so moves the mass. We the people live in one interconnected field of Rhythmic change. We are the United States.
The fractal relationship between an individual and civilization might reasonably be dubbed, Sociogentic Law. Another theory beyond this emerged in astrophysics when, on August 15, 2001, an international team of astrophysicists discovered that the basic laws of nature as understood today may be changing slightly as the universe ages. Their announcement to the world was that “there is a time evolution of the laws of physics.”
- A Nation Has a Life.
The United States
The New World, both rich and vast, was new to its settlers. Hordes of Europeans mingled at first with preceding Indian cultures then clashed with disease and war. A new nation formed against counterculture, opposition or age-old traditions. America then broke its subservience to parent nations and became virgin territory.
We have developed a youth-oriented society that loves originality, individuality and quick results. A fast population growth means that the largest age group in the US has often been below thirty years of age. The young are always contemporaneous. Older generations hold more to tradition, but they are weakened backdrops in this nation, even after a slight aging of America in the past two decades. Instead of being revered for their age, as in some other cultures, elders try to look young themselves. The power belongs to the many in our case. This means the young of a young country.
Mass marketing and media enable new trends to pervade as quickly as they develop. When thin Neckties came in style for men and padded shoulders came in for women in the 1980s, for instance, shoppers everywhere could not find anything else in stores. Then they were gone. Radio, television, and telecommunications bring news across the nation in minutes. Americans watched the Persian Gulf War on television from the first shots of the first battle. Music recordings, moving pictures, cars, clothing and other products are mass produced and distributed on a wide scale. A shopping mall in southern California may offer the same brand name clothes, music CD’s and first-run motion pictures that are featured in malls of northern New Hampshire and across the nation. Middle class opulence has brought disposable income into the hands of those who spend it on trendy items. Their demand controls the market in a consumer oriented society. The United States is known as the fastest changing culture in the world.
Many watch Rhythmic changes in our nation. Investors play the market, advertisers search for trends, and prudent shoppers keep clothes until they come back into style. Louis Rukeyser makes a living by publishing weekly notes on investments and by discussing them on television in front of millions of adoring fans each week. Today’s information era gives us better record keeping that aids awareness in the Now. That helps bring new ideas to old knowledge, and new knowledge to old ideas.
- Anecdotal Evidence of Our Actions Identify the Manifestations of Energy.
Kala
- Time Brings What Never Was, Again.
Ka is the Physical, Spiritual, and Intellectual energies that ancient Egyptian believed individuates a person, or god. It is living energy and transcends death as a life force. Kala is time, described in ancient Indian scripture. As transcendent time it is behind all – and as relative time it is Cyclical. KalaRhythms, therefore, are the changes of Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual energies in a living system through Cyclical time.
- Ka is Energy, Kala is Time, KalaRhythms are the Changes of Energy Through Time.
Kali is the “Dark Mother” goddess described in ancient Indian Sanskrit and the feminine aspect of time. She is the consort of Shiva, who is Mahakala by another name. Kali is the Triple Goddess of creation, preservation, and destruction, who gave birth to the great triad of the universe. She is the archetypical image of the endless Cycles of birth, life and death that come from Om (Aum) the creative word. In her many forms she is known by different names, and all goddesses come from her. Forms of Kali bring many energies and different parts of the Cycle. Kali is now most widely known in her destroyer aspect. As the feared and terrible destroyer, she devours the universe and transforms its energy. We are going through shifts now as part of the Cycle that gave us life. Kali is also the mother and nurturer of all creation, for she is the Divine Goddess above all.
Rhythm
A “rhythm” has periodicity, but not necessarily with a recurrent sequence of events found in some Cycles. The Oxford American Dictionary defines Rhythm as: “Movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or, of opposite or different conditions.” Rhythm may refer to a state, or prevalence of a condition. Seasons come every year, but each year has new events. The four seasons still continue their Rhythm. KalaRhythms are Cycles of periodic Rhythm.
Recurring events may be similar in nature, but not identical. Time, people, and places change, and settings alter. It is the nature of recurring events that reveals the pattern.(21) While we do not study behavior as an exact science, we are vessels to forces of exact measure. We resonate with sympathetic vibration to forces that continue their Rhythm. Realization of this brings emotional intelligence into action, and vice versa. The obscure are no less prevalent than the obvious, and no less recognizable once seen at all. After all, Edgar Allen Poe’s story “The Purloined Letter” showed that the best way to hide something is to put it out in the open where everyone can see it. The Rhythms are there.
A triumvirate braid of Rhythms is moving through the nation in an all-encompassing manner. Cycles that repeat with different durations play together like a symphony of energy. In a symphony, horns can play one melody line, while woodwinds play another, and strings play yet another, but they are all part of the same music.(22) It is harmony in a three-part fugue. We all dance to the music, even when we can’t name the tune.
- Rhythms Are the Measure of Time.
The Triad of Rhythms in America
1. The biosphere is the part of the earth, including air, land, and water, in which life occurs. The noosphere is the “sphere of human thought” derived from the Greek (nous or νους) meaning “mind,” and in the theory Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, the noosphere is the third in a succession of Earth’s developmental phases, after the geosphere (inanimate matter) and the biosphere (biological life).
2. New Testament, John 1:1: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’
3. New Testament, Revelation 3:14: ‘These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.’
4. Sutra 3 of Vedic Gospel in Sanskrit describes the three parts of Aum.
5. Doctrine of the Steadfast Mean (Chung Yung) of Confucianist Scriptures: ‘Being fully able to develop the nature of all things, he can assist the transforming and nourishing powers of Heaven and earth. Capable of assisting the transforming and nourishing powers of Heaven and Earth, he may, with Heaven and Earth, form a Triad.’
6. Native American Lakota Origin Myth: ‘In the beginning was Inyan, who had no beginning, for he was there when there was no other, only Hanhepi, the Darkness. Inyan was soft and shapeless, but he was everywhere and he had all the powers.’
7. New Testament, John 1:4,5: ‘In him was life, and the life was the light of men.’
8. Tao-Te Ching: ‘From the eternal non-existence, therefore, we serenely observe the mysterious beginning of the universe;’
9. New Testament, John 1:14: ‘And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.’
10. Torah, Book of Genesis 1:27: ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.’
11. From the Works of Chuang Tzu in Taoist Scripture: ‘If you adopt, as absolute, a standard of evenness which is so only relatively, your results will not be absolutely even. If you adopt, as absolute, a criterion of right which is so only relatively, your results will not be absolutely right.’
12. From the Works of Chuang Tzu in Taoist Scripture, All Things Are One: ‘[The truly intelligent] do not view things as apprehended by themselves, subjectively; but transfer themselves into the position of the things viewed. And viewing them thus they are able to comprehend them, nay, to master them; – and he who can master them is near. So it is that to place oneself in subjective relation with external, without consciousness of their objectivity, – this is Tao.’
13. Quoted from a satsang by Jivanmukta Swami Ganapati (the guru of Hagvinda – in Ghent).
14. Katha Upanishad 3.10-11 ‘Beyond the senses are their objects. Beyond the objects of the senses is the mind (manas). Beyond the mind is intellect (buddhi). Beyond intellect is the transcendent Self, the Soul (or point-limit). Beyond the Transcendent is the Unmanifest (avyakta). Beyond the Unmanifest is the Person. There is nothing beyond the Person. That is the limit, the highest that may be reached.’
15. Crosby, Still & Nash from the popular song, Wooden Ships: ‘If you smile at me you know I will understand ’cause that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language.’
16. Diksha Mantra | Trisharanam of Buddhism: (For ultimate peace and joy) ‘Surrender to buddha – the enlightened awareness; Surrender to dhamma – the inner righteousness; Surrender to Sangha – the collective consciousness.’
17. Doctrine of the Steadfast Mean (Chung Yung) of Confucianist Scriptures: ‘All things are nourished together without their injuring one another. The courses of the seasons, and of the sun and moon, are pursued without any collision among them. The smaller energies are like river currents; the greater energies are seen in mighty transformations. It is this which makes heaven and earth so great.’
18. From Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Science of Being and Art of Living: ‘It should be firmly established in the mind of every individual that he is a part of the whole life of the universe and that his relationship to universal life is that of one cell to the whole body.’
19. Mahakala is one of the names of Shiva.
20. I Ching, T’ai hexagram: ‘Between Heaven and Earth nothing goes away that does not return.’
21. From the Lao Tzu: ‘Reversion is the motion of the Tao.’
22. Katha Upanishad: ‘He who sees the variety of things and not the One, wanders from death to death.’
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